Love Charms (56 page)

"Meg is your sister!"

"They both are."

Genevieve shoved the bag at me.
"Take your dirty little ferret and get out. But you're not taking my
son." She opened a small silk bag.

"Mom, don't do that." Caleb
held out his hands.

"I have to, Caleb." She blew a
fine powder in his face.

I hung on to his arm. He sneezed once,
then twice, then just like the image of Grandma Gem in the forest, he began to
dissolve, like a sand castle in a wave.

"Caleb!" I clutched each part
of him as it disappeared until he was just shoes, then nothing.

I stared up at his mother. "What did
you do?"

"He'll be fine. By the time we get
him back, I'll have secured the house and consulted my spell book to break
whatever enchantment has got him so tied up with you." She tucked the bag
into a pocket. "Meriwether, take this...thing to her father and show them
the way out." She stepped aside. "Your car is still out front. I
trust you have keys?"

Actually, I didn't.

Genevieve huffed at my expression.
"Then call a cab. It's not my problem." She turned to go back up the
staircase. "Do not come near Caleb again. If Dei Lucrii wants you, his
father will kill my boy to get you. The more you entrance him, however you're
doing it, the more likely it is he will die."

She swallowed, and I could see the sorrow
behind her eyes. Also, I knew that she was right.

When she had gone, I opened the bag and
let Hallow out. "Beastly woman!" He smoothed his crimped whiskers.
"Your father has keys. I left out no detail."

I nodded, but I was still stunned by
Genevieve's words. I couldn't be with Caleb, even as a Golden. Not until I had
dealt with Dei Lucrii.

20: Let
It Snow

Snow continued to fall as we inched along
the iced-over streets. All the shops were closed for Christmas. Apparently I'd
spent a night in the spirit world while Dad waited in the dungeon.

"This has been a day to
remember," he said, stroking Hallow, who slept in his lap like a worn-out
kitten. Not from our adventure, certainly, but Meriwether must have shown him
her polecat roots.

"It's going to take an hour at this
rate." I skidded for the hundredth time, afraid to even try the brakes. We
coasted a few feet, then got traction again and continued forward. No one else
was on the road.

"Maybe we should hole up in a
hotel," Dad said. "If we have an open portal, this Dei Lucrii fellow
is probably there waiting."

Dang it. He was right. "But I need
the Book of Shadows. I have to learn all I can to fight this guy."

"I'm still lost." Dad touched
his own forehead. "I feel like I should be doing something, but I have no
clue."

I forgot that since we had attempted the
potion, he'd been locked up. He had no idea that I was a Golden, or that Dei
Lucrii wanted to make evil little bad-seed grandbabies. We slid again, and I
yanked my foot from the gas, waiting out the skid. When we were back on secure
road, I said, "So, after I disappeared into the portal, I ended up in some
weird dark enchanter world."

"You were gone a long time."

"I found a message from Grandma
Gem." I stared through the windshield, afraid to look away for even a
moment.

"How extraordinary. What did she
say?"

"That I wasn't a nix. I had been
mismarked. She wanted Mom to fix it, but apparently Mom never got the
message."

"So what are you, then?" he
asked.

"I'm what she was. A Golden
Enchantress. We're apparently a rare breed, and she wanted to protect me."

Dad whistled. "Gem was indeed rare.
I never knew anyone so kind. She never had a negative word for anyone."

"I remember her, a little."

"You two used to work in a garden
she tried to keep for Tess. Your mother had a black thumb."

"She was probably trying to grow
some of the potion herbs."

Dad nodded. "You know, there were
some strange plants out there."

"Is any of it still alive?"

"Oh, no. Once Gem was gone, it all
died, decades ago."

"Rats. I need something called
Poison Lyceria to remove this nix mark." I ran the incantation in my head
again. Amun alonza. Hidiay exponentia.

"Not sure if that's in the
lair," Dad said.

"If I had to guess, Gem would have
made sure Mom had it, just in case." I was tired of concentrating, but
there was only about a mile to go. Still, I wondered how I could ever be a
Golden. "Dad?"

"Yes, love?"

"What if I'm not up for being a
Golden Enchantress? By all accounts, they're some sort of Pollyanna Good Witch
of the North. I'm, well, you know. Not."

He chuckled. "Why do you think
you're not a good soul?"

"I'm mean. And lazy. I couldn't even
get my degree. And I dislike people." I thought of Mavis's lame daughter,
Rah. Of Gordon. "Lots of people."

Dad squeezed my arm. "You're going
to be fine. Whatever you're supposed to be, I'm willing to bet, you already
are."

We skidded again, harder this time, and I
couldn't steer us out of it. I narrowly missed a snow-covered car, and we
bumped along a curb until I gradually regained control.

Hallow rolled over, shaking his head.
"That is some terrible driving."

"Sorry," I said. "Maybe we
should just pull over. Sounds like we're in for trouble if we go home
anyway."

Hallow sat up in Dad's lap. "The
lair is secure. Tess ran a bad-intentions spell, something only mothers can do
inside their lairs. It keeps out any enchanters who plan to cause their children
harm." He rubbed his eye. "No doubt the Mother Beast back there is
performing one now on her own lair." He gazed up at me. "She thinks
it will keep you out, but it probably won't. It knows true intentions."

"So you're saying we can go into our
own lair and be safe?" I asked.

Hallow nodded and laid his head back
down. "If we ever get there."

I gripped the wheel, even more determined
to get home. This solved everything. I could get the book, learn some key
spells, and head back to Martel's. I didn't have a choice but to fight them.

My mouth turned down at the corners.
Could I kill them? I wasn't sure I had it in me. A glow grew in my belly,
warming my whole body, and now I was certain. Goldens didn't kill. There would
have to be some other way. I could only hope the book would help me.

The snow began to fall again as we
navigated the silent streets. We passed a snowplow, two gas-company trucks, and
a few straggler cars, the drivers leaning forward and concentrating much like I
was.

At last we turned the corner to our
street.

"Jet, stop," Dad said.

I gingerly applied the brakes, trying to
avoid a skid. We rolled to a stop behind a neighbor's truck.

"Someone's in front of the
house."

I peered down the road. A figure in a
long black coat waited in front of our garage. Blond ponytail. Father or son?
He turned a little, and I could see his face: the younger one. "That's Dei
Lucrii." I shoved Hallow. "I thought you said he couldn't come to the
lair."

Hallow stretched his little body up,
holding on to the dash so he could see out. "I said he couldn't come
inside the lair. He can't portal in. But he can wait outside."

The garage door was still up a few feet
from when I had raised it after the explosion. Snow drifted inside. Hopefully
the potions wouldn't freeze.

"Now what do we do?" I asked.

"You need to portal into the
lair," Hallow said.

"But Genevieve has blocked
hers."

"Keep thinking, Goldie," Hallow
said.

"Where could we find a portal?"
I smacked the steering wheel, and then I remembered. "Mavis's."

"Bingo."

We'd passed her house just a block ago.
"Should we drive or make a run for it?"

"He hasn't seen us," Dad said.
"I think we should stay in the car."

I backed slowly down the street and
turned around. When we arrived in front of Mavis's house, I realized something
was wrong. "Her Christmas lights are out," I said. The curtains were
shut tight where the Santa tree had been.

"Maybe they're gone," Dad said.

"But people who overdecorate like
that always have lights on a timer. It's Christmas Day!"

I got out and stood inside the car door,
looking over the roof of my Beetle at the house. Sure enough, the curtain
twitched.

I bent back into the car. "They are
there. Hiding."

"From you," Hallow said.
"Genevieve probably ratted you out."

"Do you think she closed her portals
too?" We had to get home.

"She can unlock them," Hallow
said.

I closed the door and began tramping up
the lawn. The sidewalks were completely hidden.

Dad got out of the car, holding Hallow on
his shoulder. "I'm coming."

I rapped on the door. "Mavis! I know
you're in there! I just need to use your portal to get home!"

Silence.

I banged on it harder. "How about
some Poison Lyceria? Surely you can toss some poison out a window."

Dad laid his hand on my shoulder.
"Jet. She's not going to open."

"Gah!" The front window was
curtained, but I wasn't giving up. I rounded the corner of the house, lifting
my feet high to struggle through knee-deep drifts against the walls.

This side had two windows, probably both
bedrooms. As I approached one, the blinds quickly snapped shut, but I could see
a stripe of floral through a broken bottom slat. "Mavis! Really! Just toss
me some poison, and it will all make sense." She wouldn't turn away a
Golden Enchantress. I just had to show her.

"She's not going to let you
in," Hallow said from Dad's shoulder. "Mavis is a very weak
enchanter, her power diminished by too much human breeding. She can't risk Dei
Lucrii noticing her."

Dad blew on his hands. "Maybe we
should consider a tactical retreat. Find a hotel, figure something out. We don't
even know any spells."

"I have the perfect spell." I
bent down to the garden that ran along the side of her house, mostly buried, to
dig out a stone from the border. "It's called 'Breaking and
Entering.'"

And I reared back and slammed the rock
against her window.

21:
Poison Lyceria

Mavis screamed like a little girl.

"I'm not going to hurt you," I
said, feeling around for the window latch.

The window rose with a groan.

"You can't come in here." Mavis
backed to the doorway, holding her hands out in front of her. "I'll
— I'll turn you into a frog!"

"Really? That's all you've
got?" I glanced around the room, a disaster area, clothes and CDs and
notebooks scattered everywhere. A poster of a blonde in a red bikini told me it
belonged to the boy.

Mavis moved into the hall. "Tess
— your mother — said you didn't know anything about
enchanters."

I walked toward her. "And so you
tried to threaten me with frogs?"

Mavis backed up against the wall.
"That bad man will come. The one that asked your mother to make the
illegal potion. I know that he killed her, somehow."

"That was his father,
actually." I glanced back at Dad, who had managed to make it through the
window. I hadn't told him that Mom had been sabotaged on my account. Sorrow
welled up, and when I tried to stuff it down as usual, it wouldn't go. My
throat began to close, but I squeaked out "He killed her to get to
me."

That got Mavis to step forward. "Why
on earth would he want a nix? And a red nix, no less? There's nothing to be
gained."

Dad made it inside and took my hand.
"We'll straighten all this out. Figure out the truth."

"But I know the truth! I saw the
doctored sea foam with my own eyes!" I turned back to Mavis. "I'm not
a nix," I said. "If you have some Poison Lyceria, I can show
you."

Dad squeezed my fingers. "We're
going to get through this."

Mavis pressed her pulpy hand to her
throat. "That's a deadly herb. Poisonous to humans and enchanters
both."

"I know. I got a message from Gem
— Mom's mom. She told me that if I sprinkled it on myself, the nix mark
would go away."

"What are you, then?" Mavis had
flushed red, like an angry rooster.

"She seemed to think I was a Golden
Enchantress, like her."

Mavis turned to Dad. "But that can't
be!"

"Give me the poison. We'll find
out."

Mavis hesitated, her hand on a doorknob
as if she might lock us in the room. "All right. I'll fetch it." She
blocked the hallway. "But you can't come in the lair. I have a
bad-intentions spell on it!"

"Then it wouldn't let me in if I
planned to hurt your family."

She hesitated. "Why do you need the
portal?"

"The bad man, as you so cleverly
called him, is waiting outside our lair. But he's blocked by his bad
intentions."

"The strongest spell in any
realm," Mavis whispered. "It cannot be broken, even in death."
Her tiny green eyes bored into me. "Not even by a Golden."

"Good, good. See? If I portal in,
I'll be safe from him. Safer than here."

Mavis nodded, then waddled down the hall.
"We must hurry, then. If they are monitoring the portals, then he'll know
you're here."

"Can you block it so they can't
see?"

"As soon as I do, they'll still
know."

This woman was smarter than I gave her
credit for.

We came to the end of the carpeted
hallway, and Mavis opened the door to a linen closet. Pictures of her two kids
lined the walls. I could see that Rah's pink ponytails were a pretty new
development, as even recent portraits showed her with natural color.

Mavis clicked a latch, and the shelves
piled with towels and sheets swung backward to reveal another room.

"Clever," I said. "We just
have the garage."

"Your mother was hidden well
enough," Mavis said.

"Why was she hiding? Why am I
mismarked?"

Mavis led us into a windowless room
outfitted much like Mom's, only instead of bottles in cases, colored crystals
lay on all the surfaces and inside clear jars.

She turned around. "When your mother
moved here, she was escaping the enchanter world. She never said why, but I
know that her uncle — your grandmother's brother — was one of the
rarest breeds of our world, a male Golden Enchanter. It's a big deal, being
that, and every enchantress wanted her daughter to be his match. In the end, he
was killed for refusing a Dark Enchanter's child."

Mavis opened a drawer and pulled out a
tarnished silver key on a leather rope. "That story is common knowledge
among all enchanters. There hasn't been a Golden child of either gender born
since."

"So that's why I was
mismarked?"

"Tess didn't tell me, obviously. You
look like a red nix to me." She glanced at Dad. "And Frank here is
unmarked, although naturally we knew he had to be an enchanter to breed a
nix." She unlocked an old wooden cabinet inlaid with marble. "Tess
begged us not to tell him."

"Dad is marked to me. He's clearly a
green enchanter."

Mavis froze. "You see a mark on
him?"

"Clear as day. An 'E' encircled in green."

Mavis dropped to one knee and bowed her
head. "Golden Enchantress! I beg your pardon!"

What the hell was she doing? "Why do
you believe me now?"

She kept her gaze on the floor.
"Only a Golden can see the true heritage of an enchanter. The rest of us
know each other only by the marks a Golden imparts upon us at birth."

"What's with the bowing?" I was
feeling a little freaked out. I turned to Hallow, who rolled his beady little
eyes. At least he was acting normal.

"Goldens are very rare. You have
special powers, and a Golden must preside over any enchanter birth to mark the
baby." She looked up at me. "Your grandmother must have had some
strong reason to hide your identity. It's a grave violation of her code."

"So, you have the poison?"

She heaved herself back to standing.
"Of course. But make sure your father and your familiar are out of the
way. It's very toxic." She rolled open a drawer and extracted a canvas
pouch.

"Where is your portal?"

"On the table. I have it covered
with a linen cloth."

Same as Caleb's. But Dei Lucrii's had
been open. Of course, he was expecting me to come through it. Mom's had been
open, too. Maybe by accident. Probably you couldn't see it during transport
when it was covered.

"Let's do this thing." I braced
myself for the poison. "Should I do it to myself so that it doesn't hurt
you?"

Mavis opened the pouch. "It is an
honor for me to do it."

"What's going to happen?"

"I will crush the berries and
sprinkle the juice on your forehead. Is there an enchantment for it?"

I remembered the phrase Gem had forced me
to memorize. "Yes, I will say it."

"You really can see your father's
mark?" Mavis's lips pinched together. "This could kill you if we are
wrong."

"Gem told me to do it. I have to
risk it."

She nodded and pulled several crimson berries
from the pouch.

"Do you have a glove or
something?" Dad asked. "Seems like that would smart a fair bit."

Mavis picked up a cloth from a stack on
the desk and wrapped it around her hand. The red berries stood out starkly
against the white fabric. "Ready?"

"Absolutely." I turned to Dad
and motioned him and Hallow back against the door.

Mavis lifted her hand and squeezed her
fingers. Her sharp intake of breath told me that the cloth wasn't enough to
protect her completely.

"Do it quickly!" I said and stepped
in close.

Mavis dribbled the juice on my face.

Pain exploded through my temple, and I
sank to my knees, trying not to scream. I choked out the words "Amun
alonza. Hidiay exponentia," but the burn didn't ease. Mavis flung the
cloth and berries onto the table and laid a new, clean cloth against my face
just as I was forced to close my eyes from the sting.

Fire licked along my skin. I felt more
hands holding my arms, probably Dad. "Hang tight, Jet," he said.
"We're cleaning it off you now."

The pain lessened by degrees. The hands
pulled me up and led me to a chair. I sank gratefully into it. "Can I wipe
it myself?" I asked. At least I wasn't dead. I just had to endure a little
longer.

"I'll let go," Mavis said.

I caught the cloth and pressed it into my
eyes. "I can't get the burn to stop."

"Do you know any healing
spells?" Mavis asked.

"Hardly. I barely know how to
operate a portal."

"Surely you know one, Mavis,"
Dad said.

"I'm a very weak enchanter,"
Mavis said. "Too many humans in my line. My own children have no powers at
all."

"What about the crystals?" I
asked. "Rah said you and Mom worked with them."

"I can try." Mavis brushed
against me as she moved to the table behind us. "I just can't do much of
anything. I never could. That's why no enchanter would match with me. I wasn't
even assigned a familiar."

Rejection — I understood it well.
"Just do your best," I said.

I could hear her rustling on the table,
and the crack of stones rubbing together. "I'm going to press these to
your face," she said. "Lay the cloth down flat over your skin."

The fabric was cool against the burn. I
had broken out in a light sweat from the pain but was determined not to show
it. I couldn't frighten Dad. Something furry brushed my arm, and I realized
Hallow was sitting in my lap. "A familiar can magnify a spell," he
said.

"But you're not my familiar," I
said. "You're a free ferret."

"Maybe I can make an exception just
this time." I could hear the strain even in his voice. I must look really
bad.

I ran my hand down his soft back, the
first time I'd actually petted him since he started talking. Mavis moved in
close, and the heaviness of the rocks pressed into my eyes.

She began to chant something. One day I
would understand those words. I'd learn what they meant and how to say them
myself. Already I was starting to feel the cadence, the long and short tones,
the rhythm. All those songs Mom taught me were helping. The cloth against my
face grew colder, a relief at first, but then another type of pain.

I gripped the edge of the chair. I could
endure this. I would make it. I would have faith.

The chill began to ease, and I did feel
better. Mavis pulled the rocks from my eyes, and I sat up fully again,
realizing how much I'd sunk into the chair.

"Let's see how you look." Mavis
lifted the cloth from my face, and the light through my eyelids was blindingly
bright, stained red, and frightening. I covered my face with my hands.

"You look good, Sweetpea. Can you
see?" Dad was hovering close, his voice just to my left.

"It's too bright."

"Can you kill the lights,
Mavis?" he asked.

Her footsteps crossed the room, and the
light dimmed; only the brightness of the hall spilled through the open door.

I split my fingers, letting just a little
of the room in.

Everything was blurry and faint, but I
could do it. I breathed in deeply and exhaled, trying to calm myself, and
lowered my hands.

Mavis sucked in a breath, and at first I
thought it was in horror, but then she said, "Isn't it lovely?"

Dad squeezed my arm. "It's the most
beautiful thing I've ever seen."

They came into focus, both beaming at me.
"What are you talking about?"

"Your mark," Mavis said.
"It's there. The golden seal."

"About time," Hallow said.

Mavis helped me up from the chair and led
me to a mirror. I looked sort of scary, blond hair shooting out in every
direction, trapped by the silver headband. My face was grimy and red. But they
were right; in the center of my forehead was a sparkling gold four-pointed
star, like the kind you see on the top of Christmas trees.

I took a deep breath and turned around to
them, my little army of outcast enchanters and a mean-mouthed ferret.
"Time to take on the bad guy."